SNAPSHOT: Risking Lives for a Drop of Water

How Samar’s tragic death saved others

Girls fetching water from the newly built water reservoir closed to the village

How Samar’s tragic death saved others

Samar was a ten-year-old girl from the village of Al-Hamrah in Ibb, Yemen. This morning she was going about her normal routine of collecing water with her friends – they regularly visited the Manboosh spring in the nearby Qadeef Valley. Samar didn't know what fate awaited her; today would be the last day she would collect water. While she bent down to collect the water in her bucket, she fell into the pond and drowned.

Ongoing drought results in the quick depletion of regular water sources in several villages around the Manboosh Spring where Samar died. Many people must travel long distances to collect water from the Spring – often sending their young children to collect water a few times a day. Samar’s death was an unfortunate and chilling warning to the residents.

After Samar’s tragic death – in partnership with the World Bank and UNDP, the Public Works Project worked closely with the female villagers to quickly and urgently build a closer water harvesting reservoir to relieve villagers from having to collect water from the distant valley and to provide them with easily accessible and clean drinking water. Most importantly, the reservoir would protect the lives of their young girls and put an end to the tragedy marked by Samar's death.